<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<!-- 
  ****************************************************************************
  * Copyright (c) 2008-2009,2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.              *
  *                                                                          *
  * Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a  *
  * copy of this software and associated documentation files (the            *
  * "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including      *
  * without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,      *
  * distribute, distribute with modifications, sublicense, and/or sell       *
  * copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is    *
  * furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:                 *
  *                                                                          *
  * The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included  *
  * in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.                   *
  *                                                                          *
  * THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS  *
  * OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF               *
  * MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.   *
  * IN NO EVENT SHALL THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM,   *
  * DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR    *
  * OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR    *
  * THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.                               *
  *                                                                          *
  * Except as contained in this notice, the name(s) of the above copyright   *
  * holders shall not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the     *
  * sale, use or other dealings in this Software without prior written       *
  * authorization.                                                           *
  ****************************************************************************
  * @Id: tabs.1,v 1.8 2010/12/04 18:40:45 tom Exp @
-->
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>tabs 1</TITLE>
<link rev=made href="mailto:bug-ncurses@gnu.org">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>tabs 1</H1>
<HR>
<PRE>
<!-- Manpage converted by man2html 3.0.1 -->
<STRONG><A HREF="tabs.1.html">tabs(1)</A></STRONG>                                                         <STRONG><A HREF="tabs.1.html">tabs(1)</A></STRONG>




</PRE>
<H2>NAME</H2><PRE>
       <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> - set tabs on a terminal


</PRE>
<H2>SYNOPSIS</H2><PRE>
       <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> [<STRONG>-v</STRONG>[<EM>n</EM>]] [<STRONG>-ahuUV</STRONG>] <EM>file...</EM>


</PRE>
<H2>DESCRIPTION</H2><PRE>
       The  <STRONG>tabs</STRONG>  program clears and sets tab-stops on the termi-
       nal.  This uses the terminfo  <EM>clear</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>all</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>tabs</EM>  and  <EM>set</EM><STRONG>_</STRONG><EM>tab</EM>
       capabilities.   If  either  is  absent,  <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> is unable to
       clear/set tab-stops.  The terminal should be configured to
       use hard tabs, e.g.,

              stty tab0


</PRE>
<H2>OPTIONS</H2><PRE>
   <STRONG>General</STRONG> <STRONG>Options</STRONG>
       <STRONG>-T</STRONG><EM>name</EM>
            Tell <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> which terminal type to use.  If this option
            is not given, <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> will  use  the  <STRONG>$TERM</STRONG>  environment
            variable.   If  that  is  not  set,  it  will use the
            <EM>ansi+tabs</EM> entry.

       <STRONG>-d</STRONG>   The debugging option shows a ruler line, followed  by
            two  data  lines.   The  first  data  line  shows the
            expected tab-stops marked with asterisks.  The second
            data  line  shows  the  actual tab-stops, marked with
            asterisks.

       <STRONG>-n</STRONG>   This option tells <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> to check the options  and  run
            any  debugging option, but not to modify the terminal
            settings.

       The <STRONG>tabs</STRONG> program processes a single  list  of  tab  stops.
       The  last  option  to be processed which defines a list is
       the one that determines the list to be processed.

   <STRONG>Implicit</STRONG> <STRONG>Lists</STRONG>
       Use a single number as an option, e.g., "<STRONG>-5</STRONG>" to  set  tabs
       at  the  given  interval  (in  this case 1, 6, 11, 16, 21,
       etc.).  Tabs are repeated up to the right  margin  of  the
       screen.

       Use "<STRONG>-0</STRONG>" to clear all tabs.

       Use "<STRONG>-8</STRONG>" to set tabs to the standard interval.

   <STRONG>Explicit</STRONG> <STRONG>Lists</STRONG>
       An  explicit  list  can be defined after the options (this
       does not use a "-").  The values in the list  must  be  in
       increasing numeric order, and greater than zero.  They are
       separated by a comma or a blank, for example,

              tabs 1,6,11,16,21
              tabs 1 6 11 16 21
       Use a '+' to treat a number as an  increment  relative  to
       the previous value, e.g.,

              tabs 1,+5,+5,+5,+5
       which is equivalent to the 1,6,11,16,21 example.

   <STRONG>Predefined</STRONG> <STRONG>Tab-Stops</STRONG>
       X/Open defines several predefined lists of tab stops.

       <STRONG>-a</STRONG>   Assembler, IBM S/370, first format

       <STRONG>-a2</STRONG>  Assembler, IBM S/370, second format

       <STRONG>-c</STRONG>   COBOL, normal format

       <STRONG>-c2</STRONG>  COBOL compact format

       <STRONG>-c3</STRONG>  COBOL compact format extended

       <STRONG>-f</STRONG>   FORTRAN

       <STRONG>-p</STRONG>   PL/I

       <STRONG>-s</STRONG>   SNOBOL

       <STRONG>-u</STRONG>   UNIVAC 1100 Assembler


</PRE>
<H2>PORTABILITY</H2><PRE>
       X/Open  describes  a  <STRONG>+m</STRONG> option, to set a terminal's left-
       margin.  Very few of the entries in the terminal  database
       provide this capability.

       The  <STRONG>-d</STRONG>  (debug) and <STRONG>-n</STRONG> (no-op) options are extensions not
       provided by other implementations.

       Documentation for other implementations states that  there
       is  a limit on the number of tab stops.  While some termi-
       nals may not accept an arbitrary number of tab stops, this
       implementation  will  attempt  to  set tab stops up to the
       right margin of the screen, if the given list  happens  to
       be that long.


</PRE>
<H2>SEE ALSO</H2><PRE>
       <STRONG><A HREF="tset.1.html">tset(1)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="infocmp.1m.html">infocmp(1m)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="ncurses.3x.html">curses(3x)</A></STRONG>, <STRONG><A HREF="terminfo.5.html">terminfo(5)</A></STRONG>.

       This describes <STRONG>ncurses</STRONG> version 5.9 (patch 20110404).



                                                                <STRONG><A HREF="tabs.1.html">tabs(1)</A></STRONG>
</PRE>
<HR>
<ADDRESS>
Man(1) output converted with
<a href="http://www.oac.uci.edu/indiv/ehood/man2html.html">man2html</a>
</ADDRESS>
</BODY>
</HTML>
